By Michael Martina
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A joint exercise on Russia and China’s strategic bombers in East Asia on Tuesday showed the depth of coordination between the two countries, a senior US administration official said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has previously confirmed a joint patrol that it said lasted 13 hours over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea and included Russian Tu-95s and Chinese Xian H-6 strategic bombers.
Planes from the Japanese and South Korean air forces monitored Russian and Chinese planes as part of the exercise, Russia said.
The move marks the first joint Chinese-Russian military exercise since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24, according to the US official, and comes to the end of US President Joe Biden’s trip to the region.
“We believe that this shows that China continues to be willing to coordinate closely with Russia, including through military cooperation,” the official said, adding that such actions should be planned in advance.
“China is not moving away from Russia. Instead, the exercise shows that China is ready to help Russia defend its east while Russia fights to the west,” the man said.
A senior administration official added that the bomber drill showed that Russia would stand with China in its territorial disputes with its neighbors in the East and South China Seas.
It was unclear whether the exercise was scheduled to coincide with Biden’s first trip as president to Asia, where he visited allies South Korea and Japan, and on Tuesday joined leaders of democratic Japan, India and Australia – commonly known as the Quartet – for their second personal summit.
Biden stressed during the trip, designed in part to counter China’s growing influence in the region, that the United States will stand with its allies and partners to push for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.
Beijing and Moscow announced an unrestricted partnership just weeks before Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and China refused to condemn the move.
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The two countries have conducted such exercises in the past, including what Russia said was their first joint long-range air patrol in the region in 2019. In August, they conducted a large-scale military exercise in China involving more than 10,000 troops.
U.S. officials say there is still no indication that Beijing has provided material support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, a move they warned could spark sanctions against China, like some of the radical measures taken by Washington and its allies against Moscow. .
(Report by Michael Martina. Edited by Gary Doyle and Chizu Nomiyama)
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